CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Computers and Computing

EE121
FALL 2022
Dr. R. NAMANE
Introduction

 In today’s world, the use of computers has increased

so rapidly that we can no longer ignore them.
 They are used to perform several functions that made
our life easier.
 Computer Applications in Society
 Education, Finance, Government, Health Care,
Entertainment,Transportation , Business, Housing, etc.
What is computer science?
 It is the science that deals with methods for the
automatic processing of information in solving
problems using digital computers.
What is computer science?
 It is the science that deals with methods for the
automatic processing of information in solving
problems using digital computers.
Information (Data)

 Information is any acquired knowledge that can

be represented inside a digital computer in binary
form (numbers, text documents, images, voice
and video).
 When information is entered into and stored in a
computer, it is referred to as input data. The
result of processing is the output data.
Automatic

 Automatic means with no human intervention

Processing

 Manipulation of data by a computer via a set of

instructions which is called a program.
Example of a Computer program
Program Add two numbers
Begin
Read the 1st number
Read the 2nd number
Calculate the sum of the two numbers
Write the sum
End
What is a Computer?
 It is an electronic device that manipulates
information or data and performs computation. It
has the ability to store, retrieve, and process data.
 It is a programmable machine.

 It is a digital electronic machine.

 History of the computer
 The term computer is derived from the word compute which
means calculate.
 The origin of the word compute is from the Latin “calculi” that
means pebbles.

 The history of computers can be divided into two time ages (dark
and modern):
 Mechanical computers (Early Calculating Machines).
 Electronic computers (5 Generations of Modern Computers).
 Early Calculating Machines
 ABACUS
 A Chinese wooden ABACUS Emerged about 5000 BC.
 It is said to be the first known computer.
 It was used to perform simple additions and subtractions.
 It consists of wooden beads and calculation were performed by
moving these beads properly.
 Early Calculating Machines

 NAPIER'S BONES
 It is a manually-operated calculating device created in 1617 for the
calculation of multiplications and divisions.
 It consists of a set of eleven rods with numbers marked on them in
such a way that by simply placing the roads side-by-side products and
quotients of large numbers can be obtained.
Early Calculating Machines
 Pascaline Calculator
 It was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642.
 It was first mechanical adding machine
 It had a series of wheels with teeth which could be turned using
hands.
 It was limited to addition and subtraction.
Early Calculating Machines

 Stepped Reckoner
 Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1672.
 The machine that can add, subtract, multiply and divide
automatically.
Early Calculating Machines
 Arithmometer
 A mechanical calculator invented by Thomas de Colmar in 1820.
 The first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating
machine.
 The machine could perform the four basic mathematic functions.
Early Calculating Machines
 Jacquard Loom
 The Jacquard Loom is a mechanical loom, invented by a French
textile manufacturer Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1881.
 This machine was designed for automatically creating weaving
patterns on cloths.
 They were able to read information that which have been punched
into the cards automatically
Early Calculating Machines
 Difference Engine
 In 1822 Charles Babbage, a British scientist and mathematician at
Cambridge University, invented a huge mechanical machine called
difference engine that performs differential equations.
 It is based on the principle of difference of the squares of number.
 Babbage is considered to the father for modern digital computers.
 Early Calculating Machines
 Analytical Engine
 In 1833, Babbage came out with a new idea of Analytical engine, the
first programmable machine.
 It was intended to be completely automatic machine having punched
card input, storage unit, arithmetic unit, printing unit, and controlled
by a sequential program.
Electronic digital computers
 The five generations of electronic digital computers
are:
 First generation electronic computers(1942-1955)
 Second generation (1955-1964)
 Third generation (1964-1975)
 Forth generation (1975-Now)
 Fifth generation
First generation (1942-1955)
1946 : ENIAC
(Electronic Numerical
Integrator And
Computer), the first
electronic computer
developed at the
University of
Pennsylvania.

Vacuum tubes
First generation (1942-1955)
1948: John von
Neumann describes a
design architecture for an
electronic digital computer
with these components:
A processing unit with both an
arithmetic logic unit and processor
registers, a control unit that
includes an instruction register and
a program counter, Memory that
stores data and instructions, and
Input and output mechanisms.
First generation (1942-1955)
1949 : EDVAC
(Electronic Discrete
Variable Automatic
Computer), to overcome
the problems faced with
ENIAC, John Von
Neumann developed the
idea of “stored program”.
 Second generation (1955-1964)
Major Development: Transistor
 Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes.
 Efforts were made of reduce the size and cost of computers
and also to increase the speed and reliability of computers.

Examples of second generation computers are:

 UNIACIII, IBM-1401, CDC 1604 AND IBM 7070;1400
Series;1600 series etc..
Second generation (1955-1964)

IBM 1401
Second generation (1955-1964)

IBM 7070
Third generation (1964-1975)
Major Development:
 Integrated solid state circuitry, improved secondary storage
devices, new input/output devices.
 This generation computers also contained secondary storage
devices for large data storage.

Some third generation computers are:

 IBM system/360series, PDP-8 Series, PDP-11 Series, NCR
century series, etc..
Third generation (1964-1975)

One of the IBM System/360 Series

Third generation (1964-1975)

One of PDP-11 Series

Fourth generation (1975-Now)
Major Development:
 Microprocessors were introduced as CPU.
 Improvements to IC technology made it possible to integrate
more and more transistors in a single chip.
 CRT screen, laser & ink jet printers, scanners etc were
developed. Secondary memory was composed of hard disks –
Floppy disks & magnetic tapes were used for backup memory.
 Greate versatility in software.
 Introduction of micro and super computer.

Some fourth generation computers are:

 Apple Macintosh and IBM PC
Fourth generation (1975-Now)

IBM first PC with Intel µprocessor 8088 (1981)

Fourth generation (1975-Now)

Apple Macintosh 128K (1985)

Today’s Computers
Major Development:
 Portable note book computers introduced.
 Storage technology advanced – large main memory and disk storage
available.
 Introduced World Wide Web. (and other existing applications like e-
mail, e Commerce, Virtual libraries/Classrooms, multimedia
applications etc.)
 New operating systems developed – Windows 95/98/XP/…,
LINUX, etc.
Fifth generation
Major Development:
 Scientists are now working on the fifth generation of
computers.
 These computers will have the following capabilities:
 These computer will be equipped with, thinking power
capabilities of reasoning, learning, drawing inferences and
making decisions like human beings.
 This generations of computers will depend on major
advance in artificial intelligence.
 Highly sophisticated operating systems.
 Introduction of parallel processing
 Super speed
 What are components of a computer?

 The computer mainly consists of hardware and

software.
 Both of these components work together to
process data.

Hardware: the physical

parts of the machine that
you can touch.
Software: programs that
make the hardware
functions.
Computer Overview
Inside the system unit
Computer System Hardware
 The three major hardware components of a
computer are:
1. CPU (Central Processing Unit):
2. Memory
 Main memory
 Secondary memory
3. Input/Output devices
CPU
 It is the brain of the computer
 It performs arithmetic and logic operations of
the system.
 It controls and coordinates the operations of
the system.
 The power of the system comes from the speed of
its CPU carrying out operations.
Components of the CPU
 In the CPU, there are two primary components.

 ALU (arithmetic logic unit) - performs

mathematical, logical, and decision
operations.
 CU (control unit) - directs all the processors
operations.
Main Memory (commonly called RAM)
 Any program (data + instructions), to be
executed by the CPU, should be first loaded into
main memory.
 Main memory intimately connected to the CPU,
so moving instructions and data into and out of
the processor is very fast.
 RAM is a Volatile memory (loses its contents
when the computer or hardware device loses
power).
How does the RAM look like?

Memory Memory
addresses contents
Other types of Main Memory
 Other types of main memory include:
ROM
Cache
ROM (Read Only Memory)
 Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile
memory used in computers and other electronic devices.
 Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the
manufacture of the memory device.
 Read-only memory is useful for storing software that is rarely
changed during the life of the system, sometimes known as
firmware.
 Example of such firmware is the BIOS (Basic Input/Output
System and also known as the System BIOS which is the first
software to run when powered on the computer (booting
process). The BIOS initializes and tests the system hardware
components, and loads a boot loader which then initializes the
operating system.
Cache Memory
 Cache Memory is a special very high-speed memory.
 It is used to speed up program execution and synchronizing
with high-speed CPU.
 Cache memory is an extremely fast memory type that acts as
a buffer between RAM and the CPU.
 It holds frequently requested data and instructions so that
they are immediately available to the CPU when needed.
Cache Levels

 Various levels of cache memory exist (inside or

outside the CPU).
Secondary memory (Auxiliary Memory)

 Where programs and data are kept on a long-term

basis.
 Common secondary storage devices are the hard
disks and optical disks.
 Permanent and non-volatile memory
 Storage capacity greater than main memory but
slower than it.
 Not connected directly to the CPU
Input/output devices (also called peripherals)
 They allow the computer to interact with outside world
by moving data into and out of the system.
 Input devices: keyboard, mouse, microphone, …etc

 Output devices: monitor, printer, speaker, …etc

 Basic Computer Organization
(Von Neumann Basic Structure)

Central
Input Output
Processing
Peripherals Peripherals
Unit (CPU)

Main
Memory

Secondary
Memory
How does a computer work?
 A program is a coded form of an Algorithm
 A program is a set of instructions for carrying out
a specific task.
 Programs are stored in secondary memory, when
created.
 Programs are in main memory during execution.
How CPU executes program instructions
step-by-step
CPU-RAM Diagram
Digital Information
 A digital computer is built out of tiny electronic
switches.
 From the viewpoint of ease of manufacturing and
reliability, such switches can be in one of two
states, ON and OFF.
 A switch can represent a digit in the so-called
binary number system, 0 and 1.
 A computer works based on the binary number
system.
Digital Information
 Computers store all information digitally:
 Numbers
 Text
 Graphics and images
 Audio
 Video
 Program instructions
 In some way, all information is digitized – broken
down into pieces and represented as numbers
 Bits, Bytes, and Words
 Once information is digitized, it is represented and stored in
memory using the binary number system.
 Bit = Binary digIT = 0 or 1 (A bit can be represented as a voltage
in a hardware computer).
 Byte = a sequence of 8 bits = 00000000, 00000001, ..., or
11111111
 Word = a sequence of N bits where N = 16, 32, 64 depending
on the computer architecture.
 Double-Word = a double-word also has the size of 2 words

 Measuring Amount of Data/Memory Capacity

 1 kilobyte = 1 KB = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes
 1 Megabyte = 1 MB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
 1 Gigabyte = 1 GB = 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
Computer System Software:
 Computer software consists of both programs and
data.
 Program consists of a set of instructions telling the
computer exactly what to do to perform a useful
task.
 Three main software types:
Systems software (operating systems).
Programming software (programming languages)
Applications software (user applications).
Operating systems (OS)
 OS is the first software that is first loaded when
powering on the computer.
 OS is always present when a computer is running.
 OS Controls and coordinates operation of the
hardware and software components (running
programs and managing the resources they need).
 Examples of OSs: Windows, Linux, Mac OS,
Android, …etc
Programming Languages
 A programming language is a vocabulary and
set of grammatical rules for instructing a
computer or computing device to perform
specific tasks.
 The term programming language usually
refers to high-level languages, such as BASIC,
C, C++, COBOL, Java, FORTRAN, Ada, and
Pascal.
Application Programs
(commonly called Applications)
 They are programs that people use to get their
work done.
 Users of those programs not necessarily
programmers.
 Examples: word processor, web browser, game
programs, …etc
 Conclusion
To program means telling a computer what
to do through a set of instructions for
solving a certain problem. Those
instructions written in a computer’s
language are called computer programs.